Kimi Raikkonen can add a second title to his tally in 2012.

That is the claim of the 2007 world champion’s countryman Mika Salo, who now commentates on Finnish television MTV3.

In the fourth race of Raikkonen’s return to F1 from rallying, the 32-year-old last weekend challenged Sebastian Vettel for victory in Bahrain, finishing second for Lotus.

Five years after his title with Ferrari, he is 19 points from the head of the 2012 drivers’ championship.

“The most consistent team has been Lotus,” former grand prix driver Salo said. “They’ve been fast at every circuit so far.

“In that sense, Kimi’s situation looks very good. I would not exclude it at all that he will be fighting at the very end of the championship, if Lotus is able to maintain the pace of development.”

It is on Salo’s final point that Lotus’ 2012 season will really be made.

“They (as Renault) also began the previous season just as well, but soon after they were nowhere,” observed the Swiss commentator Marc Surer, speaking on Austrian television Servus TV.

“So the real question is ‘Do they have the resources to develop the car and stay where they are now?’”

Even if Lotus’ challenge fades, the future for Raikkonen – who has surprised some experts with his re-adaptation to F1 after two years of rallying – is bright, Surer insisted.

“I think he has shown everyone that he is still able to do just what he was doing before (leaving F1),” he said.

“He is a lot younger than Schumacher, and if you look at the past ten years, he is probably one of the best talents that we have seen in F1.”

Surer said he could therefore imagine Raikkonen leaving Lotus and returning to a ‘top’ team, but he wouldn’t know which one to recommend.

“Everything is so balanced this year that it’s impossible to pick a car that he could win the championship in.”

 With the 2012 season now looming, Dr Helmut Marko has admitted Red Bull is “slightly ahead” of its rivals.
February’s official testing season is over, leaving competitors and pundits to predict the likely pecking order less than two weeks before the Melbourne grid forms.

“I see it like this,” Red Bull consultant and driver manager Marko told Austrian television Servus TV.

“We are slightly ahead, then there are McLaren and Mercedes — I don’t know exactly, but not far away,” he said.

On the other hand, Marko said Ferrari does not appear an immediate challenger.

“At Jerez, their car was very bad. It has improved since then, but as we speak, Ferrari, I believe, are not in a position to go onto the podium,” said the Austrian.

Niki Lauda has tipped Mercedes to flirt with the top positions in 2012.
After February’s winter group tests, rivals and pundits are now assessing the likely pecking-order less than two weeks before the season opener in Australia.

“My feeling is that McLaren and Red Bull are almost equal,” triple world champion Lauda told Austrian television ORF’s Sport am Sonntag programme.

“The big positive surprise is Mercedes. They have chosen a different way,” said the 63-year-old.

“The nose is relatively small, making the car look quite different to the others, because they have the (front wing innovation) F-duct.

“For me, it’s the most innovative car, and it also looks to me as through the (F-duct) mechanism works very well.”

Lauda said a strong Mercedes will be the first real test for Michael Schumacher since the great German returned to F1 in 2010.

“It’s a very important year for him,” he said, “because for the first time he and us will really know the answer to how he stands against Rosberg.

“Michael needs to prove to us all how good he really is — which of course is difficult, since logically you do not get faster with age.”

Meanwhile, Lauda agrees with speculation sweeping the F1 world about Ferrari’s current pre-season crisis.

“They’re behind, no doubt about it,” said the Austrian. “The car is pretty unstable, slipping at the front as well — I think they could be two or three tenths behind the top three.

“At the beginning of this year, that’s quite a lot,” explained Lauda.

“In Alonso they really have a top man, but if the car is too far behind then he can’t do anything about it, especially as he has a not-so-strong teammate in Massa who is not going to push him.”

Bernie Ecclestone is not close to lifting his foot from the throttle.
That is the view of the outspoken triple world champion and F1 legend Niki Lauda, admit the latest rumblings about the sport’s future beyond the 81-year-old Briton’s long reign.

It emerged on Monday that David Campbell, the new head of F1′s trackside advertising company Allsport as well as the Paddock Club, had left the role after just a year.

He had been tipped as a likely successor to chief executive Ecclestone, and so his departure sparked new speculation about F1′s next ‘supremo’.

But Lauda, denouncing the rumours as “unnecessary”, told Austrian television ORF’s Sport am Sonntag: “The end is not in sight for Bernie.

“This discussion has been around for ten years, since he turned 70 — everyone saying he won’t be around for much longer.

“On the contrary: I met with him just recently, he’s in high spirits and he keeps doing what he is doing for as long as he wants to — and I see absolutely no end,” the Austrian legend added.

 Keeping Mark Webber alongside new back-to-back world champion Sebastian Vettel for 2012 was the right choice.
That is the claim of triple world champion Niki Lauda, referring to the recent one-year extension of the 35-year-old Australian’s contract.

Webber, after mounting a close championship challenge in 2010, has failed to win a single grand prix this season compared to early title winner Vettel’s nine in an identical Red Bull.

But pundit Lauda backs the move to renew his deal.

“On a good day Mark is really fast and pushes Sebastian hard enough to keep the (car) development moving on,” he told Austrian television Servus TV.

“I see it as a very good (driver) combination,” added Lauda.

F1 might end a spate of near-constant driver penalties by installing a permanent race steward. FIA president Jean Todt’s new initiative of having a former professional racing driver on the stewards’ panel at every grand prix has been widely praised. But the system may not be perfect, as the last couple of grands prix indicate. Some observers were amazed that Sebastian Vettel’s swerve against Jenson Button at the Suzuka start last weekend was not penalised. “I am not going to lie. At that moment in time, yes, I felt that it was a little bit more than was needed,” said Japanese grand prix winner Button. Alex Wurz, speaking on Austrian television ORF, said he thinks Vettel was lucky not to have his championship celebrations delayed by a penalty. “He was lucky that (1980 world champion) Alan Jones was the driver steward, because someone else might have issued a warning or even a stop and go,” he said. Agreed a report in Speed Week: “Obviously Alan Jones took a tough approach (at Suzuka).” Like Button, also upset at Suzuka was Felipe Massa, angry that Lewis Hamilton’s latest collision went unpunished. “They (the stewards) have penalised people for much less this year and this time they didn’t do it,” said the Brazilian. Force India team manager Otmar Szafnauer agrees that consistency is crucial so that drivers know how to behave. “If something has happened three times before then he knows the way it is and what has to happen,” he told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

Mark Webber’s struggles in 2011 are about Pirelli tyres but also his teammate Sebastian Vettel.
That is the claim of Red Bull driver manager Helmut Marko, when asked about the difficult season suffered by the team’s Australian driver in 2011.

Last year Webber finished just a handful of points behind Vettel’s championship win, but in 2011 he has failed to win a single race compared with his soon-to-be double world champion teammate’s nine so far.

“Webber is suffering with the successes of Vettel,” Marko told Austrian television Servus TV this week.

“But if they did not have each other then neither would be where they are now, as they push each other to excel. This is also the principle of our team.”

Another factor has been the switch from Bridgestone to Pirelli tyres, as Vettel “has been better to adapt” according to Marko.

It has been suggested that Webber is unhappy with the inconsistency of the Pirellis off the grid, which has contributed to his run of poor starts.

“Mark has had some problems this year with the starts, which is a very complex process. But he is aware of it and he is working on it with his engineers and in the simulator,” said team boss Christian Horner.

Both Horner and Marko tipped him to solve the problem in the next couple of races, but according to Yahoo Singapore, Webber thinks he lost his only chance of becoming world champion last year.

“Yes of course, I do think that last year was my last chance at being world champion,” he is quoted as saying.

“To win the championship you need 100 per cent from the team. I think it’s difficult for the team to give 100pc to both drivers as we are both demanding.

“Looking at the start we actually got (in 2011), it’s clear where the support needs to go and I respect that in some way,” added Webber.

Yet more drivers, experts and pundits are crowning Sebastian Vettel the likely 2011 champion after his latest victory in Belgium.
At the German’s rival team McLaren, team boss Martin Whitmarsh insists giving up on the championship would not be right despite Vettel’s huge points lead.

Veteran test driver Pedro de la Rosa however acknowledges that realism could be about to set in.

“Perhaps this is the moment to forget Spa,” said the Spaniard after the Red Bull one-two, “perhaps it is even the moment to forget the drivers’ world championship”, he wrote in a column for formulasantander.com.

“Forgetting the calculator now, and accepting that there is already virtually a winner of this world championship, we can begin to think of 2012 and how to avoid at all costs the domination of Red Bull being prolonged for another season,” added de la Rosa.

Another former McLaren racer David Coulthard, now a British television commentator and Red Bull advisor, agrees that Vettel’s chasers have left their run too late.

“Ferrari and McLaren have the resources and personnel to catch Red Bull, and in fact they have done so,” he wrote in his column for the Daily Telegraph.

“McLaren probably had the quickest car in Belgium at the weekend. They just didn’t get the job done.

“Seb’s lead … has almost certainly assured him of a second successive world title,” agreed the Scot.

Also succumbing to the eventual mathematics of the current points standings is ten time grand prix winner Gerhard Berger, who thinks Red Bull is right to keep its optimism under wraps for the moment.

“As long as it (defeat) is still theoretically possible, it is bad luck in sports to celebrate in advance,” he told Red Bull-linked Austrian television Servus TV.

“But for me there is no question; barring a disaster for him, this year’s world champion is Sebastian Vettel,” said Berger.

Mark Webber’s plans for 2012 could be decided this week, but it might not be public knowledge for “months”, the Australian driver suggested on Tuesday.
Dr Helmut Marko stirred the pot in Hungary by suggesting that the 34-year-old will “probably” retire after racing one more season with Red Bull in 2012.

Team boss Christian Horner played down the Austrian’s comments by suggesting Webber might decide to stay in F1 for a few more years, agreeing that a new deal for 2012 is likely.

“I am having fun,” Webber said on Austrian television Servus TV on Tuesday, “and on Thursday will have a good conversation with Dietrich Mateschitz.

“During the summer break we will discuss it one way or the other, then we will know in the next few months.”

Webber has had a less than satisfying 2011 campaign so far, while his teammate Sebastian Vettel ran away with an arguably unassailable title lead.

But the Australian thinks he is improving.

“The next victory will come when I least expect it. Just as with my first one,” he said.

“I have the feeling that I am getting stronger all the time. It’s going in the right direction.”

Webber insisted that he has not decided what to do in 2012.

“Whether I’m here depends ultimately on my motivation and whether I can race at the top level. At the moment it looks as though I will keep going.

“Naturally I’m speaking to the people who are close to me and who have supported me and I will make my decision when I need to. Soon,” he said.

Red Bull’s preparations for the FIA clampdown on so-called ‘hot’ exhaust diffuser blowing are well advanced, Dr Helmut Marko has warned.
Marko said on Austrian television Servus TV that he regards the clampdown as a move against Sebastian Vettel’s dominance, after Red Bull pioneered and perfected the technology for its RB7 car.

But team owner Dietrich Mateschitz’s right-hand man on F1 matters warned: “We would not be Red Bull if we did not already have ideas about how to mitigate the effect (of the ban).”

Off-throttle hot-blowing will be effectively banned from Silverstone next month, and on Tuesday it emerged that the FIA has immediately banned teams from running highly aggressive engine maps in qualifying and then switching to a more reliable race mode for the grand prix.

Marko has compared the FIA’s moves with the end-of-season banning of double diffusers and F-ducts, noting that “This time it (the ban) seems to be in a hurry.

“I would say it is about (the dominance of) Red Bull,” he charged.

But the Austrian thinks McLaren will be similarly affected by the clampdown because “they copied our system very well”, while Ferrari “never really got it under control”.

Marko, meanwhile, predicted Renault – with unique front-exiting exhausts – to be hit particularly hard.

But Renault’s technical director James Allison responded: “Some teams will lose more and some teams less; it is hard to know exactly what relative loss we will suffer.”

Meanwhile, a FIA spokesman explained that the immediate engine-mapping clampdown is because the spirit of the ‘parc ferme’ rules was being exploited.

Charlie Whiting’s technical note to the teams on Tuesday insisted that cars “should be raced exactly as they qualified”.

The FIA has moved further to clamp down immediately against aggressive exhaust blowing.

It was already known that so-called “hot blowing”, involving the aggressive blowing of engine exhaust through rear diffusers when the driver is not on the throttle, will be effectively banned as of Silverstone next month.

But Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport reported on Tuesday that another element of exhaust blowing will be banned immediately.

From Valencia this weekend, teams will no longer be able to use extremely aggressive hot-blowing in qualifying, and then switch to a more engine-friendly setting for the grand prix.

McLaren said recently it suspected precisely that practice was giving Red Bull’s RB7 its qualifying advantage.

Jenson Button told Blick: “They (Red Bull) use the exhaust gases into the diffuser non-stop on a qualifying lap, but not in the race.”

And Auto Motor und Sport quotes team boss Martin Whitmarsh as adding: “With Red Bull’s aggressive qualifying mode, they are gaining a good half a second.”

Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko said on Austrian television Servus TV: “If the others cannot copy it, they can try at least to have it banned.”

But the Austrian said he suspects Ferrari will benefit the most from the FIA’s clampdown.

“I think McLaren will be affected less, or similar to us as they have a very good copy (of the Red Bull exhaust),” said Marko.

Sunday’s was the best drive in the meteoric career of Sebastian Vettel.
That is the claim of triple world champion Niki Lauda, who said despite Spain being the reigning world champion’s fourth win of 2011, the pressure applied by Lewis Hamilton made it clearly the best.

“I’ve always said Sebastian is a great racing driver, but today he drove the biggest and best race of his life,” Lauda said on German RTL television.

Barcelona did, however, raise a crucial question: how could McLaren’s Hamilton apply so much pressure in the race following Red Bull’s clear superiority in qualifying 24 hours earlier?

“I cannot give the answer,” Alex Wurz said on Austrian television ORF, “or I could immediately sell it for a lot of money.”

Asked the same question, Vettel is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport: “We’ve got a few theories.”

The mystery raises an interesting prospect for Monaco, where Fernando Alonso expects ‘DRS’, KERS and the Pirelli factors to not be great enough to overcome the overtaking problem on the famously tight street circuit.

“In Monaco, if you are in front, it will be difficult for anyone to pass you,” the Spaniard, who was lapped on Sunday despite leading the Barcelona race early on, told reporters in his native tongue.

“We know the important day in Monaco will be Saturday,” Alonso continued. “For the first time this year qualifying will be more important.”

Red Bull will have to keep delivering a top car to Sebastian Vettel, team owner Dietrich Mateschitz has admitted.

The 23-year-old, groomed through the ranks by the energy drinks company, became F1′s youngest ever world champion against the odds in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

“He will be a world champion a few times more,” said Austrian billionaire Mateschitz on Austrian television ORG, “provided he is sitting in the right car.

“We will do our best to give that car to him,” he added.

“If we are not able to, we will have to let him go somewhere where he can be champion again,” said Mateschitz.

Vettel’s current contract runs only to the end of next year, with an option for 2012, but Red Bull has expressed interest in extending the deal through 2015.

His next agreement will be worth much more money, Willi Weber has warned.

But he thinks Vettel has missed out on F1′s headiest days of driver earning power.

“I have a feeling that Michael (Schumacher) and I had the best time in F1, with which you can no longer compare,” the famous driver manager told SID news agency.

“Today there is less money available,” added Weber.

Karl Wendlinger insists it is “hard to imagine” that Red Bull has ruled out the possibility of deploying a team strategy at the final two races of 2010.

Following suggestions Sebastian Vettel might play a supportive role to boost teammate Mark Webber’s chance of winning the drivers’ title, Red Bull bosses insisted the pair will enjoy strict equality in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

But according to Austrian Wendlinger, a former Sauber driver, it is “difficult to imagine” that Red Bull has “totally ruled out” the concept of using team orders.

He also noted on Austrian television Servus TV that Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has confirmed that if there is a lack of spare or new parts in Brazil, it will be Webber who is offered them first.

That is a “psychological advantage” for the Australian, Wendlinger said.

“He (Webber) knows he is better placed in terms of points and that the team wants one of its drivers to be world champion,” he added.

Niki Lauda reinforced the view that “intelligence is not the same as team orders”.

He was very critical of Ferrari’s infamous strategy at Hockenheim, but insists that Red Bull should now be fully behind Webber.

“I’ve never said anything about (Red Bull using) team orders. Just that they have to be sensible,” the triple world champion told Kleine Zeitung newspaper.

“What Ferrari did at Hockenheim for example was an affront to the spectators.”

When asked if that means, for example, that Vettel should not try to overtake Webber at Interlagos this weekend, he answered: “Exactly. But this is nothing to do with team orders.”

Fernando Alonso is in the same league as two of F1′s greatest recent champions, according to Gerhard Berger.

“There are sometimes those special drivers: Ayrton Senna was one, Michael Schumacher was one, and Alonso is one,” said the Austrian and former grand prix winner.

Berger is uniquely placed to compare Ferrari’s Spanish driver with those greats — he was one of Senna’s closest friends, having raced alongside the late Brazilian at McLaren in the 90s.

And he was a contemporary of Schumacher’s during the seven time world champion’s first F1 career, moving away from Ferrari to make room for the German, and then replacing him for the 1996 season at Benetton.

“They are drivers who can win world championships without having the absolute best car,” Berger told Austrian television Servus TV.